In January, two Democrats will join the Spokane County Board of Commissioners' three sitting, re-elected Republicans — bringing the total number of commissioners to five and altering the face of a government body that's been solidly red since 2006.
Thanks to redistricting, a good chunk of the districts represented by the new Democrats are within city limits. The incumbent Republicans, however, represent districts that are largely within the unincorporated, rural sections of the county.
You can see it on the map: two small, tightly-packed chunks of blue land clustered on the city of Spokane — boxed in on all sides by three large, imposing blocks of red.
Josh Kerns, who was elected to the board in 2016, says he's especially interested in seeing how that city-county dynamic plays out. He argues that commissioners generally vote on things like law enforcement, roads, zoning and planning that only affect people who live outside Spokane city limits, which means the two new Democratic commissioners' constituents will not feel the impact of their votes.
But those two Democrats — Chris Jordan and Amber Waldref — don't see themselves as representing just the city or just the county. They argue that their positions will allow for better collaboration between the city and county governments, and push the ball forward on shared issues like land development.
"We've kind of lived in this world where somehow if you lived in the city you don't live in the county, but you do — you live in both," says Waldref, a former Spokane City Council member.
Jordan, who is new to elected office and recently left his job as an assistant attorney general, brings up homelessness as one area that could benefit from better communication and a regional approach.
The new districts don't just have the potential to alter the relationship between the city and the county — they also have potential to upend the balance of power on the Board of Commissioners itself.
The new structure puts Al French — who was elected to the board in 2011 and is its longest-serving member — in a competitive district. He narrowly won re-election with 51.5 percent of the vote this year.
French, who didn't respond to an interview request, fought a fierce yet unsuccessful battle to stop the county board from expanding to five districts, arguing that it was a political move designed to tip the scale to Democrats.
His long tenure on the board, his previous eight years on the Spokane City Council and his narrow win could lead some to think French is in the best position to build coalitions and act as a swing vote between Waldref and Jordan on one side and Mary Kuney and Kerns on the other.
Kerns, however, doesn't think French will be changing his tune anytime soon.
"Al's always been Al," Kerns says. "I don't think Al's going to change the way he is as commissioner."
Waldref says it's too early to know for sure, but that she does expect the power center on the board to shift.
"I do think a five-member board is going to change the center of gravity," Waldref says. "I don't know if it will be Commissioner French or if other commissioners will step into that. It's going to depend on how we build relationships."
ROOM FOR DEBATE
The new county board structure French fought so hard to stop is the work of state Rep. Marcus Riccelli, a Democrat from Spokane who in 2018 helped pass the state's Responsible Representation Act, arguing that the county's existing board structure didn't properly represent the county's growing population.
He still argues that the Spokane County Board of Commissioners has taken a "monolithic" view of how to run the county in years past. He hopes the two Democrats will bring a "new voice to the table" — a phrase that Jordan adopted in his campaign.
French and his fellow Republicans have dominated the board for years, often voting in unison. Kerns says the three commissioners have had their debates and disagreements, but acknowledges that they're often on the same page policy-wise. Not anymore.
"I think there will definitely be more debate," Kerns says. "There's such a large amount of issues we deal with, we're bound to have some pretty heated discussions on some of them."
But the Democrats are in the minority and will likely struggle to sway the vote on partisan decisions. Riccelli, Waldref and Jordan are keenly aware of that, but hope that just having a seat at the table — and platform to articulate an opposing viewpoint — will help move the ball.
"Just to air those things out in public and have that dialogue, I think, will hopefully improve and perfect things," Riccelli says.
But that all depends on the public actually showing up to hear the dialogue.
Public comment sessions at City Council meetings can notoriously stretch on for hours, well after the council's 6 pm start. Each member of the public has just three minutes to speak their mind, but they tend to make the most of it.
But even when a contentious issue is up for vote — like whether or not to sue the state over Camp Hope, the city's large homeless encampment — the public comment sessions at county commissioner meetings are often empty.
French and other incumbents have defended the board meetings as complying with the Open Public Meetings Act, but critics fault the commissioners for a lack of public transparency. Agendas are often posted late and with little detail on what will actually be discussed. Unlike the City Council, the commissioners hold their meetings in the middle of the day.
Jordan and Waldref both think there's room for improvement. They say improving transparency is a priority they're interested in pushing when they take office.
PACKING THE ROOM
It's hard to overstate just how historic the new board structure is. Spokane County has been run by a board of three commissioners for 143 years. Now that there are five, no one knows exactly what's going to happen.
"I kinda feel like we're the guinea pig," Waldref says. "Everything is going to be new and different, so you just have to approach it with a lot of grace."
It's a busy time. Jordan is in Olympia this week for a newly elected officials training, and Waldref is tied up meeting with county leaders and watching videos of old commission meetings.
In the Public Works building on the county campus, construction is underway on three new offices that will accommodate the newly elected Democrats and their assistants. The commissioners are still planning to hold their weekly meetings in the conference room, but with two new faces, it might get a little crowded. Some officials might have to scoot down and find a new place to sit.
Then there's the Board of Commissioners' other duties, like the more than a dozen other boards that the commissioners sit on and that have to be restructured.
On Monday, the five commissioners all will sit down together for the first time to talk about who wants to be on what board. Waldref says she hopes the commissioners will wait until January — when everyone is officially sworn in — to vote on board assignments. But it could still happen earlier.
And then there's the person who will lead the group as the chair. The chair traditionally rotates, but earlier this year, the commissioners voted to change it so the commissioners vote on who among them will become chair.
The Board of Commissioners is entering uncharted territory, Waldref says. The structures put in place now will define the way county government works for years in the future.
"It's going to be a year of changes," Waldref says. ♦
